By the time you read this, I will have made those first turns as is my custom by checking out the demos at Sunday River during this holiday weekend.

It’s an easy way to get started. I can follow my own advice to hang around the lower slopes when testing skis. I don’t have to head for the top of the mountain and test my early season legs. A few runs on the Mixing Bowl novice area are enough, and the rest of the day is spent learning what new skis are getting the most attention. There will be plenty of days between now and the next holiday to make some longer runs. This moderate start to the season is plenty, but before that first day I had to travel to Boston for the ski show. Over the years, this third weekend in November has brought every kind of weather, rain, snow and this year early autumn temperatures.

As usual, a good part of our time at the show was spent visiting with old friends and receiving updates from various resorts. Visiting with Ski Maine Executive Director Greg Sweetser as he set up his booth for the show, it was good to see Saddleback setting up in the next booth. After a bunch of slow years during the battle with the National Park Service, Saddleback’s marketing efforts had been pulled back, but their presence at the show was a welcome sign of all that is happening there.

On Tuesday, I got a look at all that is going on, when I turned onto the access road and found a brand new paved surface all the way to the base lodge.

When I walked to the lodge, I could see workers everywhere. They were crawling over the roof, and standing on scaffolding applying material. More were inside working furiously to complete a building that has more than doubled in size to 36,000 square feet.

The occasion was a ribbon-cutting by Gov. Baldacci to celebrate the return of Saddleback as a destination ski resort for Maine. I knew last spring what was in the works, but this was the first opportunity to see it for myself.

The base lodge is the same rustic wood as the old lodge and parts of it remain. The design has opened up views in every direction with a lot of glass and there is more space for everything from the basement to the second floor. When the new trails, lifts and snowmaking bring more skiers, this lodge will be able to make them comfortable.

East of the lodge is the new base station for the Rangeley lift, which has been extended down the mountain, allowing skiers to ski down from the lodge and head directly up the mountain. A new quad chair, which replaces a T-bar, opens a new lift line and trails below the lodge. A year from now, a new hotel is expected to be at the bottom of this new lift.

Not as obvious, but equally important, is a huge expansion in snowmaking capacity. As McAllister pointed out, the entire length of the Grey Ghost can now be covered in a single night. That means if we get cold weather, we can expect a very white Christmas at Saddleback. This is always an exciting time of year for skiers, but the renaissance at Saddleback has to be the most exciting story of the season.

Dave Irons is a freelance writer who lives in Westbrook.